TBIT 'Qantas' Business Lounge - extremely confused, as are staff

[Danger]

It seems like another change has emerged: FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - LAX - TBIT oneworld Lounge Access (Combined thread).

 

[Princess Fiona]

It seems like another change has emerged: FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - LAX - TBIT oneworld Lounge Access (Combined thread).

No replies to that yet. Very poor if it is a new rule.

 

[muppet]

No replies to that yet. Very poor if it is a new rule.

With the way AA dishes out freebie upgrades to its elites, I can see how they may want to cut back on this kind of expense.

Remember when flying AA, it's probably just you and your travel companion who actually paid for a premium fare.

 

[Strategic Aviation]

Remember when flying AA, it's probably just you and your travel companion who actually paid for a premium fare.

This is greatly declining as the big 3 would rather sell their premium cabins rather than accommodate upgrades.

The US legacy airlines seem to be doing everything in their power to destroy the value of being loyal frequent flyers. They’d rather always give consumers exactly what they pay for with each transaction, without much consideration for the overall business customers provide to the airlines. I’m not saying that’s necessarily a bad long term strategy, but the speed at which these changes are occurring is insane.

Just looking at Executive Platinum status with American this year. For my favorite redemption preferences miles are worth ~30% less than they were last year, my favorite Executive Platinum perk (eight systemwide upgrades) got cut in half, and the average person is probably earning about half as many redeemable miles as they used to, thanks to American’s new revenue based frequent flyer program. How much more value can you take out of a program in a single year?

While that’s bad for frequent flyers in theory, there’s a silver lining. Airlines want to sell first & business class seats rather than upgrading people to them, and as a result we’re seeing a trend of much lower paid premium cabin fares than before.

There’s little question that upgrades are harder than they were 5 years ago and 10 years ago.

* Airlines are selling discounted first class fares far more than they ever used to.
* Airlines are making aggressive buy up offers to first class.
* The economy is doing better than it was (hey, the Federal Reserve even raised interest rates!)
* Airlines aren’t expanding as quickly as they used to. As air travel grows, and airlines ‘practice capacity discipline’, there’s more demand for a dwindling number of available upgrade seats.
* Lots of people confirm their upgrades in advance – in part because of all the miles that are out there, and in part because of how tough the competition is.

All of these things combine to depress your upgrade percentage.

When Delta began upselling into first class, only 11% of premium cabin passengers had paid something to be there. Since then:

* In 2011, 31% of domestic first class passengers have paid something to be there
* In 2012, 36% of domestic first class passengers have paid something to be there
* In 2013, 40% of domestic first class passengers have paid something to be there
* In 2014, 45% of domestic first class passengers have paid something to be there
* In 2015, 57% of domestic first class passengers have paid something to be there

In 2018 Delta expects to be up to 70%. And they expect to go from selling 36% of extra legroom coach seats to over 50% by that time.

 

[Princess Fiona]

With the way AA dishes out freebie upgrades to its elites, I can see how they may want to cut back on this kind of expense.

Remember when flying AA, it's probably just you and your travel companion who actually paid for a premium fare.

Not relevant.
Access to the lounge at LAX for pax in J/F on a transcon is part of the One World rules.
The OP in the FT post has no status on AA.

 

[dfcatch]

With the way AA dishes out freebie upgrades to its elites, I can see how they may want to cut back on this kind of expense.

Remember when flying AA, it's probably just you and your travel companion who actually paid for a premium fare.

Irrelevant - most AA upgradees don't receive lounge access as only TCON premium pax domestically on AA get access.

It's not like Aus.

 

[psmall]

Hi all!

I just thought I'd quickly write to document my experience on arrival at the TBIT Qantas Business Lounge on Friday.

I'm a Qantas Club member, and the short version is - I was denied access.

The long version:

I was flying from Sydney->Lax->SEA in economy. The Sydney->LAX was great, and I kicked it off with a stint in the Sydney business lounge - always a pleasure there, and the staff are lovely.

The LAX->SEA leg is where it gets interesting. The boarding pass for this leg was printed in Sydney, and sold to me as QF3739. The whole trip was purchased directly from Qantas, and both my boarding passes were issued by Qantas. The operator for this leg, however, was Alaskan - and the primary flight number was AS475.

Ahead of time I checked the access rules for the TBIT lounge for Qantas Club members, which are as follows:

'Next onward flight that day must be a Qantas, or Jetstar Airlines+ flight number.One guest allowed and must be travelling with the member on the same flight.'

I made sure to call the QFF hotline ahead of time to clarify this, and these assured me that there would be no issue. In fact, I further clarified this at the Qantas checkin desk in TBIT before heading through security (I didn't want to waste my time). However, upon arriving at the front desk of the lounge, there were two issues:

1. The staff member at the desk didn't know what the Qantas Club was, despite entry rules for Qantas Club members being clearly posted on the Qantas website for this lounge. It was a bit odd standing at the desk explaining the concept of the Qantas Club to this staff member, who perhaps might not be a Qantas employee - but was still representing Qantas.

2. Despite my boarding pass clearly having a Qantas flight number allocated 'Sold as QF3739', and the flight clearly showing as QF3739 in my Qantas app on my phone, the staff member was quite abrupt, and would only scan the boarding pass and say 'computer says no'. I should have thought of it at the time, but I didn't get call the QC hotline to discuss it further (I'd just got off a long flight!).

I'm now in Seattle, and have made several calls to the QFF line (I called first on Sunday, Australian time, and there was no supervisor available). I have subsequently spoken to a supervisor, and they agreed after a quick internal conference that they see no reason I should have been denied access, and my reading of the rules was correct.

They have offered to 'pass my comments on' - but honestly I feel like this has had the effect of reducing the value of my QC membership (lounge access being the very reason I purchased it in the first place...) has been substantially reduced here - and that 'passing my comments on' is a polite way of simply getting rid of me.

Has anyone else had an experience such as this? I was originally unsure as to whether I would be allowed lounge access at TBIT on this codeshare flight, but now that every Qantas staff member I've spoken to seem to believe that I should have been - it seems odd to me that they're being so dismissive of this. The whole experience was a bit embarrassing to me, as I had a staff member with me as my 'lounge guest', so to be turned away was an even less pleasant experience.

As I said to them, this kind of dismissal of Qantas Club members is precisely what will make me reconsider renewing next year..

I just had a print out from Qantas that I was a qantas club member and was being denied access at LAX. I began stating that this was the biggest waste of money I had spent and was told I could access it. The lady behind me in the line said, ‘oh I can’t gain access it either then’. She was told she was fine because she had the card. Five minutes later I was allowed in after she got a supervisor to tell her that the card and letter are the same thing.